Challenging youngsters’ imaginations

Winning team from the Olive School

Primary schools across Birmingham came together on 7 July to celebrate the final of the Zeiss Challenge your Imagination programme at Millennium Point.

Eleven schools pitched innovative product ideas that aid visual impairments to a panel of judges, followed by two workshop sessions and an awards ceremony.

Funded by Zeiss and delivered by Learn by Design, the year-long Challenge your Imagination programme gave pupils from 20 local schools the opportunity to experience and understand optics, robotics and visual impairments through interactive STEM workshops.

In small teams, pupils were then challenged to design a product that used optics or robotics to help people see better in different situations. In the form of posters, models and a pitch, they showcased their ideas to a panel of judges at the celebration event.

The overall winner was the Olive School with their robot and glasses combination. The robot was designed to send a visual feed of its surroundings to the glasses, allowing the partially sighted user to see through the robot’s eyes to a greater distance. Judges described their presentation and pitch as a “a very strong presentation of a clear and thought-out design”.

The runners-up included St Gabriels RC School (second place), Leigh Primary School (third place), Heathfield Primary School (peer vote) and Yew Tree Community School (teamwork).

Pupils also took part in an Electrifying Science Show, delivered by Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum, and left with a goodie bag each.

The Zeiss programme, run for the second year, incorporates key elements of the company’s work, such as robotics, optics and innovation, whilst raising awareness of STEM careers.

Watch a case study video here.